Roush Racing president Geoff Smith touched off a vintage garage-area vendetta by making remarks critical of James Ince, one-time crew chief for Roush driver Kevin Lepage. Ince, now working on the #45 with Rich Bickle, issued a press release Friday that took what had seemed like a fairly routine USA Today feature and raised the tension level to DEF-CON 4. In a June 23 story, Smith said that Ince was let go because he deviated from the organizational norm. Ince fired back by saying he was not going to be the scapegoat for Lepage’s poor performance. “I have always believed in living and dying by the sword, but I never dreamed they would wait until I had my back turned to pull the knife,” Ince said. “That is what I feel like has happened here. “I’m not sure Geoff Smith has been to Liberty in the past two years,” continued Ince. “Geoff is entitled to his opinion, but when I was at Roush I answered to Jack Roush and I never heard any of these concerns from him, and to this day I have heard nothing but praise from Jack about the work I did for him and his race teams.” An immediate news blackout fell over Team Roush, although one of its operatives did visit the press box to pick up a copy of Ince’s remarks( SpeedNet/Monte Dutton ), see the USA Today story at: Roush Racing not satisfied . Also see another story on the topic at That’s Racin’ – Ince fires back at Roush Racing president
